Ohhh, Mexico!

In early May we were informed that several production lines from my plant would be moving to Mexico. The six-month notice time is almost over, and the ax will soon be falling. Until people actually begin to be laid off, no one knows exactly who will be affected. There is a complicated bumping procedure that will happen, and eligible people will be offered early retirement packages, so depending on what order things are done in, and what areas go first, I might or might not be caught. It's possible that I could stay, though with my line being one of the ones going, I'd have a different, possibly lower-level job. It's also possible that I could be laid off, which is a scary thought since I have a car payment that is bigger than my house payment. Current rumor has it that they are having trouble with my particular line down South, so my job might not be affected at all for awhile. Though the thought of job-hunting and unemployment payments and making do on less is scary, I would just like to KNOW. The hardest thing is going around not knowing if you'll be affected or when. The average age and years of service are high where I work, so there are many who would be eligible to retire, and some already plan to do so. But I don't have that option.

I need to work harder at that winning-the-lottery plan!

Traded Up

The other day I took my 1-year-old PT Cruiser for an oil change. It had not quite 8800 miles on it so I was a little early, but I had the time, and it was Ladies' Day and all, so why not? My previous car was an Ford Escort station wagon that I raised from a pup. It had just seven miles on it when I bought it, and it served me well -- most of the time -- for almost 10 years. In spite of the repair costs it incurred in its later years, I never fell out of love with it. I just knew, though, that it was about time for something really bad to go wrong with it, and I was finally in a financial position that I could buy a "big girl" car. So I sold it, and bought my PT. My PT is a beautiful pale gold, with a sunroof, satellite radio, CD and tape players, power seats, windows, and locks (none of which I had in the Escort), and lots of nice little features, like the overhead compass/outside temp thermometer. It still makes me smile every time I drive it. Oddly, I don't miss my Escort. :) I keep the PT clean with trips to the fancy car wash, where you walk along a hallway and watch the car going through the wash, then a half dozen cute young guys hop in and clean the windows and vacuum it and put in a "new car" air freshener. I am also being careful to get oil changes right on schedule. I pulled into the oil change place, and they ran my license plate on their computer, and greeted me by name when I got out of the car. He asked if I was still at the same address (yes), and then asked if that was still a 2005 PT Cruiser (um, yes, last time I looked it was). These places are always out to sell you some filter or service that you suspect you don't really need, and today was no exception. I sat in the waiting room listening to them. One guy called out the mileage, which was 8797. After a pause, the other guy said, "That's all?" Still, he pulled the air filter, searched his stock for a replacement, then called me out to look at the "dirty" one. It's a rectangular type, and it looked almost as clean as if it had just come out of the box. There was a small dirty area on it about the size of a ping-pong ball. I've seen dirty air filters before (remember, I had my Little Red Momcar for 10 years) and I know what a dirty one looks like. The guy looked at me like he was sorry to have to give this little speech, but he launched into how I could see that my air filter was getting dirty, and that they recommend you replace it every 10,000 miles, and did I want a new one? I looked at him and said, "I haven't even driven it 10,000 miles yet." With this look that said "sorry, but I have to ask, even though I know it's a stupid question", he asked, "Well... do you want me to replace it... or just put it back?" I suggested he put it back. After the oil change, I took the car for a wash, and feeling like a responsible owner of a well-maintained car, I put it carefully into the garage. The next day at work a bird with digestive problems apparently hovered over it for some minutes (there's nothing like looking at bird poop through the sunroof), and then the next day it poured rain. Hey, I tried!

Looking Younger

OK, so now that I'm of *ahem* a certain age, I've been paying a lot more attention to those commercials for firming-lifting-fine line-reducing-miracle creams. Not that I NEED that sort of thing, you understand... it's just research. Anyway, I bought one awhile back to try it. It promised to make my skin younger-looking. Well, it did! Sort of. I mean, acne IS a younger look, but it's not exactly the one I was going for, you know?